I see price difference on pricerunner.co.uk between these 2 as 300-500 pounds. For that price, you can buy a very good home cinema system to complement your TV. While Sony is Sony, I don't think it should command that big a difference. LCDs are quite fragile and I won't be comfortable making a big investment. Especially because I have broken one TV and saw another one going bust. Both were Samsung. The first one we broke the screen, but somehow managed to get it exchanged by Samsung. The second one had a power issue after 1 year. I found out that it was a very common issue with that Samsung model. Basically it had to do with some cheap capacitors put on the motherboard whose life was 1-2 years. The fix was easy (if you are a mechanic, which I am not) and I even bought a soldering iron and capacitors to try and do it myself (any simple repair job in UK costs a fortune). But eventually I managed to get this exchanged by the retail company, Beyond Television. Not Samsung this time as they refused to accept that their TV had this fault (though clearly you could see lots of people online with exactly the same issue).
The point behind the above is not to suggest that Samsung is shitty. Well, the 2nd problem looked quite stupid, but I think it can happen with any brand. I still like their TVs and I think they are very well priced. There is no issue with picture quality. And the problem above is so stupid that I hope they have fixed it by now. And there are other non-Sony choices like Toshiba, Sharp, etc. I won't suggest buying any local brand. Some chinese stuff like Grundig may be very cheap, but if you want to gamble with your money, you may as well go to a casino. I haven't owned a Sony LCD TV (have had their digi cams, which have been brilliant, but that has nothing to do with TV), but I think you do get better quality for extra money, though the quality increase is not as much as price increase. That is brand premium>fundamental value.
A good thing to do would be to go to
www.avforums.com. It has a dedicated forum on LCDs. You would find lots of user inputs on specific models, comparisons, problems, etc. Avoid a model with known problems, even if some proud owners say they never faced it. Second good thing would be to choose a nice retailer. My first one was Currys (Dixons, PC world, etc. are same company as Curry). And they didn't help out with my broken TV (not arguing they should have, as we broke it). But I won't buy from them again. Second one was from Beyond Television, a much smaller company, and they replaced my TV with a new model. And that too after 1 year, when warranty had elapsed! It was totally unexpected. Another option would be John Lewis, who give a 5 year warranty on all TVs (accidental damage ofcourse not included). And they would also price match if you get them a quote from a street shop (not an online one). I think 5 year warranty is really great for a LCD TV, whatever brand you are buying.
You are much better off looking for technical details online rather than on JL. There are buying guides like this which should answer most of your questions:
http://www.cnet.com/1990-7874_1-5108580-1.html
(PS: don't let HD and all to overwhelm you. Most LCD TVs have HD and despite having HD ready TV for 2 years, haven't seen a single HD telecast. I won't dish out money on HD DVDs/Sky HD. Look for other issues that are more practical. Like how many devices you want to connect to TV and how. There are n things that can be connected like Sky box, home theater system, wii/PS, computer, even cameras and all. Depending on how you want to connect them (SCART, HD, Auxillary, etc.), you'd need enough types of inputs/outputs on your TV.)
You can also go to the more famous review sites. Cnet, review center, etc. would have review of all popular TVs. This link has links for several reviews:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/lcd-l...0-11-09-a.html
And this has lots of FAQs on LCDs. Should be comprehensive:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/lcd-l...ere-first.html
And this is the AVforum link where people discuss what TV to buy (though you should go to general LCD forum as well and search for threads of the model you want to buy to look for specific issues, if any, the owners of that model are facing. I won't buy an absolutely new model which has not been tested by others)
http://www.avforums.com/forums/lcd-t...-should-i-buy/